Der tote Tag

tote Tag, Der, a mythical play in five acts by E. Barlach, published in 1912. It is partly inspired by the legend of Parzival. Central to the action are the mother (die Mutter), the son (der Sohn), and Kule. Kule, a blind man, is in possession of a divine staff, which has guided him through his wanderings in the world to return to the mother when her son reaches manhood. It is Kule's mission to awaken in the son the awareness that he is destined to leave his mother to serve God, for he is a ‘Göttersohn’; outside the cottage Herzhorn, a mythical horse, is waiting to take him away. In her anguish lest she should lose her son, the mother kills the horse in the night.

The following day remains dark (the dead day of the title), for the sunlight has turned away from the earth. The lowly spirit Steißbart, the mother's tyrannized servant, exploits the dilemma and intensifies the son's yearning for his unknown father, which Kule has kindled in him. The mother feels impelled to confess to Herzhorn's murder. She stabs herself rather than lose her son's love, and the son, by likewise stabbing himself, follows the call of his mother's blood, for it proves stronger than his father's blood in him. Kule, who has lacked the strength to defy the mother's claim on her son, forfeits the divine staff, and is led away by Steißbart; he resumes his wanderings in order to help man recognize the call of the blood as the call of God, the invisible Father (the original title of the play was Blutgeschrei). Only by abandoning his physical origin (‘Leibhaftigkeit’) for the world of the spirit (‘Geisthaftigkeit’) can man move towards freedom and redemption.

Barlach created twenty-seven lithographs illustrating this, his first play.